by Matt Hughes
J-E News Editor
With the first half of the school year now in the books, Webster County administrators are beginning to look ahead to the expected August opening of the Webster County Middle School on the central campus in Dixon.
Currently the future middle school is nothing but the skeleton of a building, separated from the high school only by a temporary wall. Most of the structures walls are bare concrete walls, and water lines and electric wiring are still exposed. But despite the unfinished appearance, everything is where it is supposed to be.
“Princeton Lumber Company is well on track to meet our completion date,” said Webster County Middle School principal Geoff Bailey. “The interior renovations will be finished by mid-April.”
Bailey and representatives of the construction company meet monthly to discuss the progression of the project. So far he says there have been no major obstacles, “Everything has gone smoothly.”
The approximately $4.2 million construction includes the complete overhaul of the old math wing of Webster County High School, as well as construction of a front office area and an entirely new parking lot for middle school teachers and parents.
Construction will also include renovations to the cafeteria in the Webster County Annex, which is currently shared by Dixon Elementary and the high school. Now it will also serve the three hundred or more students at the middle school.
“They are going to start work on the food prep area of the cafeteria when they get done with the interior of the middle school,” Bailey explained. “That has to be done before the new school year, and they will have a little bit of a crunch getting that ready.”
During the last month or so of school, high school and elementary students on the central campus will have their lunches impacted by the construction. At the last school board meeting officials discussed options for that period, which included the students eating lunches in their classrooms.
Another consideration of the middle school development is the impact on the already busy traffic flow through the area in the afternoons. At the end of every school day US 41A is packed with students, parents, teachers and buses leaving the central campus, which includes Webster County High School, Dixon Elementary, the Webster County Tech School and the alternative school. The middle school
The middle school will add nearly three hundred new students, as well as their parents and teachers to that traffic flow.
“If nothing changed, it would be a headache,” Bailey said. “But we are working with the high school and the transportation department to assist. We are looking at doing things a little differently.”
He explained that the new parking lot will include 45-48 new parking spots for middle school staff, as well as a drop-off/pick-up area for students.
“If it wasn’t managed well, it could be a headache, but I think we’ve all have got heads together and it will not be,” Bailey said.
One thing that is beyond the districts power is the addition of an extra turning lane to help traffic flow in and out of the new middle school entrance. He said that he does not expect anything can be done about that before the start of the next school year because any construction to 41A would have to be done by the state.
School board officials began serious talks about the construction of the middle school in the fall of 2012. At the time architect Scott Noel had told the board that construction could be completed in time for a August 2013 opening. Operating under this assumption, the board moved forward despite please from concerned parents not to “rush ahead”.
At the December 2012 meeting Noel informed the board that construction most likely wouldn’t be completed until at least December 2013.
“We should have known this two months ago,” Jeff Pettit told Noel. “We’ve been asking every meeting. We’ve been telling everybody it would be ready in time. Now its not going to be.”
The board voted at that time to delay the opening for a year, a decision that was hard for board members to swallow, but one that was necessary.
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